Sliding gate actuating mechanism

Abstract

An actuating system for operating sliding gates of a railway hopper car in which the mechanism contains an overcenter latch for insuring that the door remains closed when in the closed position for safety purposes.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for opening the sliding gates of a railway hopper car, and, in particular, to a novel apparatus for simultaneously opening all of the sliding gates of a railway hopper car, regardless of the direction in which the gate is moved.

2. Description of the Prior Art.

A common type of railroad freight car in use today is the covered freight car of the type wherein the load is discharged through sliding doors, which are also known as sliding gates, on the underside of the body. Such cars are generally referred to as covered hopper cars and are used to haul grain, phosphate, plastic, and other dry bulk commodities that require protection from natural elements.

After covered hopper cars are spotted over an unloading pit, the sliding gates on the bottoms of the cars are presently opened and closed by either of two methods: Each gate can be manually cranked open or closed with a steel bar that is inserted into a fitting on the gate, one gate at a time; or, each gate can be opened and closed by manually applying a rotary drive air wrench to the same fitting on the gate, one gate at a time. While either of these methods will open the gates and allow the covered hopper to unload, both are time consuming because of the manual operation and because of the need to open each gate individually. Moreover, both methods are labor intensive and expose to injury those persons who are manually opening the sliding gates.

The problem of safely and efficiently unloading hopper cars has been addressed previously.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,515, issued to Shaver, et al., describes a power operated door opening and closing mechanism for rotating doors; U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,609, issued to Ortner et al., describes a system for simultaneously opening rotating hopper doors. U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,501, issued to Stevens et al., describes a sliding gate system, individually activated, for discharging the hopper contents through either one large opening or two smaller side-by-side openings; French Pat. No. 1,188,761 describes a sliding gate system which automatically opens all the sliding gates of a railway car in one direction.

U.S. Patent No. 4,628,825, issued to Taylor, provides an actuating system for operating sliding gates of a railway hopper car which opens all of the gates simultaneously, regardless of the direction which the gates must move to open. However, none of the above systems address the locking of the mechanism so that there would be no chance of the mechanism opening unintentionally. To avoid this problem, an overcenter latch design is used in the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for a hopper car having sliding gates that will simultaneously open all of the gates, regardless of the direction the gates must move to open.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a system for opening all of the sliding gates of a hopper car simultaneously from one power source such that the car can be unloaded quickly and safely.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a mechanism for simultaneous opening of all sliding gates of a hopper car that can be easily retrofitted to existing hopper railway cars as well as to be incorporated into new construction.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an overcenter latch on the actuating mechanism to lessen any chance that the doors will open unintentionally.

These and other objects may be accomplished by use of a shifting mechanism mounted on the underside of the hopper which is coupled to each of the sliding gates which opens all gates simultaneously, regardless of direction for opening, when activated by a single power source. Levers connecting each sliding door to the shifting mechanism pivot in the proper manner to enable each door to open as the shifting mechanism is moved in one direction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a hopper car capable of using the present invention;

FIG. 2A-C, inclusive, is a plan view of the mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the mechanism of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a typical hopper car, generally designated at 100, equipped with a preferred object of the present invention. Three hoppers 12 are shown, with doors 102a covering the outlet of each hopper.

FIGS. 2A-C show the actuating mechanism of the present invention in detail. An air cylinder 104 is shown in FIG. 2C. Cylinder 104 is attached to a support 106 which is coupled to the underside of the hopper car 100 by a pin 108. The movable end of cylinder 104 is attached to a clevis 110 which is rotatably coupled to a lever 112 by a pin 114. The other end of lever 112 is rigidly affixed on a rotatable shaft 116. Shaft 116 extends horizontally along the railroad car (see FIG. 3) beneath a center sill 118. A pair of supports 120 are affixed to center sill 118 to support shaft 116.

Also rigidly coupled on shaft 116 on either side of center sill 118 are a pair of levers 122. At the opposite ends of each lever 122, a pair of links 124 are coupled to levers 122 by virtue of a pin 126 which rides within a slot 128 in each link 124. The opposite ends of each link 124 is coupled for rotation to a door connector 130 by a pin 132. Door 102a which covers each hopper is connected between door connectors 130.

When door 102 is in its closed position, levers 122 and links 124 are at the positions shown at 132. A position stop is provided by a bolt 134 which contacts lever 122. In this position, pin 126 passes beyond a plane through the centers of pin 132 and link 124, which is shown by line 136, providing an overcenter latch to help insure that door 102a remains closed. When it is desired to open hopper door 102a, air is supplied to cylinder 104, causing clevis 110 to move to the left in FIG. 2C. Lever 112 rotates shaft 116, causing links 124 to shift to the positions shown at 138. This motion causes pin 26 to move to the position shown at 140, crossing the between pin 132 and shaft 116, releasing the overcenter latch. Continued movement of clevis 110 causes pin 114 to move to the position shown at 114′, and lever 112 is rotated by shaft 116 to the position shown at 112′. This continued movement causes pin 126 to move to the position shown at 126′, and lever 124 is rotated by shaft 116 to the position shown at 124′, and finally to the position shown at 126″. At this open position, levers 122 and 124 reach their final position at 122″ and 124″. In this position, hopper door 102a is shifted to the open position.

To close the hopper doors, air cylinder 104 is reversed, moving clevis 110 to the right, causing the mechanism to reverse.

Claims

1) An actuating system for operating sliding gates of a railway hopper car which contains an overcenter latch, comprising: an air cylinder; a rotatable shaft; a lever coupling said air cylinder to said shaft; a sliding gate door; a pair of levers coupled together by a first pin, with an end of one of the levers coupled to said door by a second pin; and a plane through said second pin and said shaft, where when the door is in the closed position, said first pin has traveled through said plan to create an overcenter latching effect to insure that said door will remain closed.